Furnace Repair in Lakewood, CO

When the heat quits in a Lakewood house, the first job is working out whether the furnace is failing to start, failing to stay lit, or failing to move the heat it makes. Those are three different repairs. Lakewood is the largest city on our service map at 152,597 residents, and at 5,518 feet every gas furnace in it runs against a 14.1% derate. MoJo Home Services has worked this metro since 2009; the line is 720-807-4050.

What should I do first when the heat goes out in Lakewood?

Confirm the thermostat is set to heat and calling, with fresh batteries. Confirm the furnace breaker is on and the blower door is closed hard against its switch. Replace the filter if it is dirty. Then watch one full attempt through the sight glass. If the igniter glows and the burner never lights, that is gas supply, gas valve or pressure switch. If it lights and dies within about seven seconds, that is flame sensing. If the burner runs but no air moves, that is the blower or its capacitor. Knowing which of the three you saw shortens the visit considerably.

How much heat does Lakewood's 5,518 feet cost?

Lakewood is 3,518 feet above the 2,000-foot rating baseline, and at 4% per thousand that is a 14.1% derate. A 100,000 BTU/h nameplate furnace fires at about 85,900 BTU/h in Lakewood, and a 90,000 BTU/h condensing unit at 96% AFUE puts roughly 74,200 BTU/h into the house. Neighboring Wheat Ridge sits 59 feet lower and derates 13.8%, a small enough gap to show how finely the arithmetic tracks the ground under the house.

Why does the blower matter as much as the burner at this elevation?

Because a furnace is a mass-flow machine, and Lakewood air has about 15% less mass per cubic foot than sea-level air. To move the same heat, the blower has to push roughly 16.4% more volumetric CFM than a sea-level airflow chart calls for, since 1 divided by 0.859 is 1.164. Most residential systems are rated for around 0.5 inches of water column total external static pressure, and duct systems asked to deliver extra CFM through undersized returns run well past that. The symptoms look like burner problems, high-limit trips and short cycles, but the meter says airflow. A variable-speed ECM blower will try to compensate by ramping up and quietly spending the efficiency the homeowner paid for; an older PSC blower simply falls short.

Why do high-efficiency furnaces here fail in the coldest weather?

A 90%-plus condensing furnace extracts so much heat from its flue gas that water condenses in the secondary heat exchanger, and that water has to drain away continuously while the furnace runs. Through a Lakewood winter, a condensate trap in an unheated crawlspace, a drain line run along an exterior wall, or a sidewall termination that ices over will back water up into the pressure switch circuit and shut the unit down. It presents as an electrical fault and it is actually plumbing. The 14.1% derate does not help, since a burner firing 14.1% below its rating also produces slightly cooler flue gas with less margin against freezing. On any condensing furnace call in this city we check trap, drain slope and termination clearance before anyone condemns a control board.

Is an older Lakewood furnace still worth repairing?

Often yes. Igniters, flame sensors, capacitors, pressure switches, inducer motors, gas valves and control boards are all economic repairs on a structurally sound furnace. The line is the heat exchanger: once it is breached the unit is finished, no matter how new the other parts are. If replacement is the outcome, size it on Lakewood's 0.859 altitude factor rather than by matching the old nameplate, which may itself have been chosen with no derate allowance in it.

Does furnace work in Lakewood need a permit, and where else do you go?

Component repairs generally do not require a permit; a furnace replacement does, under Jefferson County jurisdiction. We run Lakewood together with Edgewater and Green Mountain, all in the same band of elevation, so the high-altitude orifices and pressure settings a Lakewood job needs are already on the truck. For scale, Lakewood's 152,597 residents outnumber Arvada's 115,368 and are close to five times Wheat Ridge's 31,192, which is another way of saying the housing here spans a wide range of furnace vintages and no two basements are quite alike.

Nearby towns we cover

The crews that cover Lakewood also run furnace repair in Wheat Ridge, furnace repair in Edgewater, furnace repair in Green Mountain.

The opposite season has its own failure list: AC repair in Lakewood.

Background on the service is at furnace repair; the full local list is at everything in Lakewood.